Blood Boiling

Posted on Jul 16, 2020 @ 7:09pm by Ensign Lynette Ryan
Edited on on Jul 16, 2020 @ 7:09pm

Mission: Dog Days Of Summer

“BLOOD BOILING"

(Continued from Sarah's "Untangling Webs")

############################################

===============================
Location: USS Phoenix
Stardate: [2.20] 0717.2315
Scene: Main Engineering, Upper Level
===============================

Lynette's usually enjoyed her now long blond hair that she had decided on a change on grew out. It now reached the tip of her shoulders and she enjoyed the extra care it needed and playing around with different ways she could style it. During work, only due to policy, kept it in a pony tail. It was almost immaculate and immovable but at the moment it was gone, her hair free from the confines of the hair tie that bound it and now currently annoyed her. She had to blow or quickly shift the long strands from her eyes as its once immaculate, immovable state was no more and it had now become wiry and frazzled a result from the rigours of her day and of her mood.

The usual smooth and serene tapping of keys across the computer terminal was now replaced by hard punches of her fingers that was loud enough to draw the attention of her colleagues nearby.

Her usual calm mind was now a flurry of chaotic activity as she continued to work amongst her anger and disgust.

It had been days since the Phoenix had docked at Starbase 56 for debriefing, repairs as well as refits and upgrades to its systems. It was finally a chance to rest after their previous dealings with the Klingons and the Captain had felt it was well deserved. Notably one of primary upgrades to the Phoenix was a complete overhaul of the computer system and the replacement of the decades old LCARS. This new system had been named HCARS. This was to replace the current tactile terminals of buttons and screens with holographic interfaces that would take up less space but be able to be more adaptive to different situations and calibrated to each individual user. It was something that had been largely experimented with in the past but it had never been able to properly utilised or adapted to work well. Now though Starfleet R&D think they might have finally found a way to make it work and the Phoenix was to be a test bed and guinea pig for it in the field. A gigantic leap in operational efficiency was the main selling point for the upgrade.

It would be a dream for any new budding engineer to be able to work with this new technology. Installing new terminals, configuring the multi-adaptive software and the supreme challenge of being able to synchronise all the data from the old systems to the new. It was a dream of hers to be part of it, to be a part of technological history. It was not going to be though...

Lynette sneered as she watched a team of computer technicians from Starbase 56 working below on one of the new interface terminals.. She was supposed to be down there with them working but she was not a part of that project. She was not going to have her name in the annals that would make technological history. All because of the projects lead, Malin Argo, had already selected a team, a mixture of personnel from Starbase 56 and the Phoenix, to work on it and she wasn't on it. This made Lynette furious, her blood boiling with almost a Klingon level fury of which she was finding it hard to contain.

Her first impressions and introductions with Malin Argo since coming aboard the Phoenix had not been pleasant. The grazerite had expectations that were almost impossible to meet and no matter how hard Lynette tried there was always some way that she received his disappointment and disrespect. The old saying goes that 'Time heals all wounds' certainly did not apply here and their working relationship did not really improve. It was more of a fact that they generally stayed out of each others way. Lynette would have been fine to have that remain the status quo but now, not at what he had done.

Lynette felt that Malin Argo or asshat as she commonly referred to him out of earshot, had made this personal by purposely ensuring that she was not involved with the project. Getting people in that he judged worthy by his own standards. It would have been easier if they were all comprised of personnel from the starbase, but he had hand picked members of the Phoenix's engineering staff to assist. Again she was not one of them. Instead she had been assigned to the mundane task of performing diagnostics on the EPS grid where her talents were wasted and could have been put to much better use.

Lynette had outstanding skills and knowledge when it came to computers demonstrated with recognition of her grades at the academy and the honor of being hand picked to work on a special project for Starfleet which ultimately turned out to be a Neo-Essentialist super weapon that nearly destroyed Earth.

“If it wasn't for me and what I found that day there probably wouldn't be an Earth left. I saved the Federation for god's sake.” Lynette muttered furiously under her breath as her fingers kept punching at the keys.

“And what did I get for it!? I get arrested for being a Neo-Essentialist, interrogated by Starfleet Security and hell I nearly killed myself to ensure we are still here.” Her fingers turned into tightened fists that thumped the controls before her.

To Lynette it felt like a personal vendetta against her. His one last act to lord his superiority over her before his transfer off the Phoenix. Before that would have been a moment where she would be throwing a party and jumping for joy....but not with this.

Lynette watched with her continued sneer of disgust at the computer techs below that were still working on the new interface terminal and focusing on one individual very closely that had caught her attention...but for all the wrong and critical reasons.

“That's the wrong tool you idiot, you are going to end up...” Lynette screamed from her level above but she did not manage to finish her warning before a shower of blue sparks erupted from the inside of the below terminal and she saw the technician thrown backwards a few feet and dazed. Her fury only heightened from the colorful display that she witnessed below.

“Idiots! To hell with this” Lynette shouted as she pushed away from the railing that would have prevented her fall and stormed out from engineering. She needed to get away from the incompetence she saw. Away from the very environment that was only enraging her further and would cause her do do something that she would regret.

=============================================

NRPG: Surprise!!! It's been a long time coming. Seriously it has been a long time and I apologize that I haven't been able to contribute due to life in general.

I have a new laptop and especially after the day I had I just need to sit down and write and this was was all done in a single sitting. It's not much but better than I've been able to do lately.

I hope to be able to expand on this again soon.

=========================

Phillip Wright
Writing for
* One pissed off * Assistant Chief Engineer Lynette Ryan
USS PHOENIX